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 The Resurrection of 'Rusty' [the '59 Sport Fury]Jump to page : < ... 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 > Now viewing page 12 [50 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
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big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807     Location: Williams California | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | Time to refurbish more rusty parts- the interior windshield header and the two quarter window garnish moldings were very rusty, if I can't save these, I'll have to make duplicates, which will be a lot of work. I used reverse electrolysis on all three pieces, until every last bit of rust was gone. There was still some peeling chrome remaining. The pitting was heavy but evenly so, and no large pits or weak spots. I spent about six hours carefully removing material until the pits were just miniscule 'Pin p***ks in the surface. The chrome plater can plate these copper once or twice to fill the pits, then refinish before plating now. ---John (022.JPG) (023.JPG) (024.JPG) Attachments ----------------  022.JPG (140KB - 284 downloads) 023.JPG (135KB - 272 downloads) 024.JPG (124KB - 281 downloads) | ||
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| ttotired |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 8443   Location: Perth Australia | |||
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| 60 dart |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 8947 Location: WHEELING,WV.>>>HOME OF WWVA | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | The rear seat inside panels were pretty corroded, especially the lower sections. I measured these sections against the ones in a coupe, and there were only a few differences. I drilled the spot welds holding the upper to lower sections, and found a good set of panels from a coupe. These I modified and made into sections identical to the convertible lowers. I de-rusted all four pieces, and rosette welded the better top section to its new lower section. The second one was not so easy, as the upper section had rusted through in multiple places. I cut out and welded these areas up, and smoothed the welds out. a few pits will not matter as long as the pieces are solid, as they are upholstered. (001.JPG) (002.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 001.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 004.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 008.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 009.JPG) Attachments ---------------- 001.JPG (124KB - 267 downloads) 002.JPG (124KB - 279 downloads) '59 SF convertible 001.JPG (124KB - 271 downloads) '59 SF convertible 004.JPG (123KB - 277 downloads) '59 SF convertible 008.JPG (126KB - 280 downloads) '59 SF convertible 009.JPG (126KB - 273 downloads) | ||
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| Doctor DeSoto |
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Location: Parts Unknown | Years ago, I was told there was a "car just like mine" (58 Belvedere convertible) sitting in a yard in the White Center area. Some scouring of the street grid followed and what I found was a 59 like Rusty. It appeared to have melted into the ground , the bottom 10" of the car simply GONE ! Even the top bows were melted off at the side frames. Before I would venture into anyone's property, I'd go the front door and ask permission to be there. To my surprise, I was met at the door by a shotgun leveled at my face and the words "IT'S NOT FOR SALE !!!". It was an odd sight, as the house and neighborhood were pretty nice, with this one odd car just sort of melting into the grass in the side yard. When I explained I wasn't interested in owning the car and just wanted to ask permission to look at it, the guy warmed up a bit and we went out and looked it over and I got a few photos of it. That was probably around 1989 ??? and I suspect the grumpy old guy has since lost interest. He said he was gonna restore it, like they all do. Anyway, since you obviously have more than one screw loose to bring Rusty back from the scrap heap, I think I've got a "next project" in mind for you John ! If I can only remember where exactly that car was ....  | ||
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| earleebob |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 1120 Location: Brisbane, Australia | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | Doctor DeSoto - 2015-01-03 10:59 AM Years ago, I was told there was a "car just like mine" (58 Belvedere convertible) sitting in a yard in the White Center area. Some scouring of the street grid followed and what I found was a 59 like Rusty. It appeared to have melted into the ground , the bottom 10" of the car simply GONE ! Even the top bows were melted off at the side frames. Before I would venture into anyone's property, I'd go the front door and ask permission to be there. To my surprise, I was met at the door by a shotgun leveled at my face and the words "IT'S NOT FOR SALE !!!". It was an odd sight, as the house and neighborhood were pretty nice, with this one odd car just sort of melting into the grass in the side yard. When I explained I wasn't interested in owning the car and just wanted to ask permission to look at it, the guy warmed up a bit and we went out and looked it over and I got a few photos of it. That was probably around 1989 ??? and I suspect the grumpy old guy has since lost interest. He said he was gonna restore it, like they all do. Anyway, since you obviously have more than one screw loose to bring Rusty back from the scrap heap, I think I've got a "next project" in mind for you John ! If I can only remember where exactly that car was .... That's funny, Brent!! Back in the mid eighties I was helping my sister move from Elko Nevada to Winnemucca, so I rented a big moving truck. After helping her, I had to return the truck to Reno, so I took a county road south from Interstate 80 to highway fifty. There were no towns along this road, just a scattering of ranches. I did spot an old foundation and concreted area with some charred wood not too far from the roadway, and setting up high in the cab of the truck I could see a few car bodies off in the distance, so I stopped to have a look. Apparently it was an old gas station, and they would drag their junk cars and trash back a quarter mile to a ravine, and push everything down. There were probably 25 cars there, from the late forties to early sixties, including a '57-8 Chrysler convertible. These car bodies were all full of bullet holes, and some suffered the indignity of being burned with the trash years ago. BUT- they were not rusty! I didn't have much time to pilfer, as the truck needed to be returned that day, but I did get a chance to return several years later. Unfortunately, BLM had done a clean-up on the site, and the cars were all gone. Most Nevada junkpiles on public property suffered the same demise, I found out later. ---John | ||
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| GaryS |
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Expert Posts: 1207 Location: Ponder, TX | Doctor DeSoto - 2015-01-03 12:59 PM Years ago, I was told there was a "car just like mine" (58 Belvedere convertible) sitting in a yard in the White Center area. Some scouring of the street grid followed and what I found was a 59 like Rusty. It appeared to have melted into the ground , the bottom 10" of the car simply GONE ! Even the top bows were melted off at the side frames. Before I would venture into anyone's property, I'd go the front door and ask permission to be there. To my surprise, I was met at the door by a shotgun leveled at my face and the words "IT'S NOT FOR SALE !!!". It was an odd sight, as the house and neighborhood were pretty nice, with this one odd car just sort of melting into the grass in the side yard. When I explained I wasn't interested in owning the car and just wanted to ask permission to look at it, the guy warmed up a bit and we went out and looked it over and I got a few photos of it. That was probably around 1989 ??? and I suspect the grumpy old guy has since lost interest. He said he was gonna restore it, like they all do. Anyway, since you obviously have more than one screw loose to bring Rusty back from the scrap heap, I think I've got a "next project" in mind for you John ! If I can only remember where exactly that car was .... This one made me laugh! I worked with the guy for many years and he's a nice guy, an engineer, and mentally very sharp when I last saw him, but knowing him, he might indeed greet unknown folks with a shotgun, or something else from his extensive firearm collection. He asked me to come out in the mid-eighties and tell him what could be done to restore it, but as you said, it sort of melted into the wet Western Washington soil. He didn't like to hear that it had become a parts car for trim only. I seem to recall he said he had bought the car new, or almost new, and it's a shame he let it sit outside. To really make your day, I invited him to one of our Mopar shows where the raffle prize was a complete, freshly rebuilt 360. Naturally, he won it and I'll bet it still sits in his basement getting rusty. That was also in the mid-eighties. If he's still alive, I'm sure the car is still sitting there...a little deeper in the mud...since he would never sell it or part it out. He has no need for the money, and it is his memory machine. Addendum: Just for kicks, I did a web search to see if he's still alive, and he is not. He died in 2004. I also checked Google Earth to see if the car was visible, and it appears to be gone in both the satellite and street views. His wife is still alive, but if she still lives in the same house, she would be well into her eighties and probably disposed of the car some years ago. Edited by GaryS 2015-01-04 1:20 PM | ||
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| Doctor DeSoto |
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Location: Parts Unknown | Gary ~ are we talking about the same guy and car ??? !!!  Man ! ..... small world ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ You know, after he settled down, he seemed like a pretty nice guy, ... although one of those roll-your-eyes guys who's gonna restore it someday. If memory serves, I was with my brother, friend Terry, and a 4th person. It was me who told them to wait in the car while I went to the door to ask permission to look at it. I've been around firearms my whole life, but a guy on the other side of an aluminum storm door with a big ol' 3/4" black hole pointed right at my face was not something I was used to seeing. Since he was only barking out "IT'S NOT FOR SALE !", I kept my cool, stuck with the mission, and assured him that I was not there to harass him to sell, and that in fact, I had a similar car and just wanted to "talk shop" and look at it. We probably spent a half hour with him, talking and taking pictures. He was extremely bothered by people asking to buy the car for whatever reason. Moreso than the car rotting away. But that was his game and we let it rest at that. We all knew he was a crazy and were pretty bummed on him for trashing that poor car like that, but we were nice toward him and recognized this was going to be one of those "oh boy !" stories of the crazy with the top shelf car rotting in the grass, complete with shotgun, and took that away as a "next best thing". Not far over the hill toward West Seattle, we discovered a trove of similarly exotic GM cars. This crew was equally crazy, but also interested in beer money. So, that one worked out a little differently.  | ||
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| GaryS |
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Expert Posts: 1207 Location: Ponder, TX | |||
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| Doctor DeSoto |
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Location: Parts Unknown | Gary ~ as one crazy to another, your buddy was a first class whack job, just like me !  In the USMC, one comes to see being called a "maggot" as a term of endearment, of having made the grade. Everyone else would find it offensive. Same goes for "crazy" and similar with any of this eccentric hoarding of old stuff. Anyone who greets me at the door with a shotgun gets an extra slice of raisin pie for being double-extra crazy ! Nothing wrong with being a little "different". Who wants to be NORMAL ???  ===================================================== On another old car/crazy encounter, I was reading meters for the gas company .... I'd park my vehicle at the end of a street and read all the meters up one side and down the other. Oft-times it made sense to cut across backyards, etc. to get to the next meter, rather than go out to the street each time. In one such case, I had been back yard hopping and came to the last meter to read on the street before going out to my car. As I came out of the side yard I ran straight into a 1957 Olds 98 convertible and a distracting crazy woman in a bathrobe, fluffy slippers, and her hair in a big wad of curlers. Paper plates were strewn all over the driveway and she was doing this crazy motion, as if serving the ball in a tennis match. In the serving hand was a paper plate. Under the other arm was a large stacked bag of paper plates ! She was yelling something in a rather incoherent manner, as if angry, her swats at the sky looked as if she was trying to knock something out of the air. I stopped dead in my tracks, just out of sight and watched. It was just plain bizarre. After a while, I could make out something about "gawdammed baby butterflies", but it was pretty mumbled, and shouted as she made each swipe, making it hard to make out what she was saying. Occasionally she would lose hold of a plate, and rather than pick it up, she'd pull a fresh one out from the stack under her other arm, leaving this blizzard of white discs all over the drive and yard. I finally revealed my presence as best I could without scaring her to death, and tried to ask about the car. All she wanted to discuss was the problems of the baby butterflies. I left her there to continue the battle and got back to reading meters. Now, if that lady had been "normal", there really would be no story and I doubt she'd have had an old car or that I'd remember anything about that yard, street, or otherwise today. Character is good. | ||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | On to the rear seat cushions. Even though the original seats were decimated by rust, they still worked for patterns. I had always been told that the rear seat cushions were convertible specific, but found it to be part true. I removed the hog rings on a coupe seat lower cushion, and placed it next to the remains of the convertible one. They were the same! This was encouraging, as I was not looking forward to making a new one up. The upper seat back was a different story. It shared nothing with either a coupe or sedan seat. I was able to salvage the rear backing by welding sections in from another seat cushion, and repairing any rust through. Next, I gathered up enough good springs from a selection of seat cushions, and secured them to the repaired backing. The front frame was pretty much gone, but I used one from a coupe, and modified it to match the rusted sample. Next, all the small springs and securing bands were added, and Voila! Now I have good seat cushions! ('59 SF convertible 001.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 002.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 003.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 008.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 009.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 006.JPG) Attachments ---------------- '59 SF convertible 001.JPG (125KB - 272 downloads) '59 SF convertible 002.JPG (124KB - 292 downloads) '59 SF convertible 003.JPG (125KB - 283 downloads) '59 SF convertible 008.JPG (124KB - 271 downloads) '59 SF convertible 009.JPG (125KB - 279 downloads) '59 SF convertible 006.JPG (125KB - 272 downloads) | ||
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| ronbo97 |
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Expert Posts: 4042 Location: Connecticut | |||
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| VAN HELSING |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 982 Location: Upper Hunter NSW Australia | ............ You are a man of many talents there John !!!!  ............ | ||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | I fitted the quarter windows and their associated parts, and everything seems to fit well. They will need adjustment, naturally, after installing the top and door glass. Also, put the sport deck together and mounted it, and drilled the holes for the trunk V. Next, installed the recored radiator, and the re-wound larger Chrysler generator, as well as their belts and hoses, trimmed and flared the trans cooler lines. ('59 SF convertible 002.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 001.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 001.JPG) Attachments ---------------- '59 SF convertible 002.JPG (126KB - 276 downloads) '59 SF convertible 001.JPG (125KB - 272 downloads) '59 SF convertible 001.JPG (126KB - 278 downloads) | ||
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| PlymouthFury |
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| Matthew Keij |
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| FIN ME |
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Expert Posts: 2788 Location: USA - KY | WOW, John! Lookin' gooooooooooood! I agree; you're one talented dude. | ||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | The header bow was next- Took a year and a half to find a good one, Thanks, Johnny G! After sandblasting all the convertible top parts, discovered a section was weak and full of rust pinholes. This I cut out, fabricated a repair patch, welded and metal-finished it. Now ready for primer! ('59 SF convertible 002.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 003.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 004.JPG) Attachments ---------------- '59 SF convertible 002.JPG (125KB - 262 downloads) '59 SF convertible 003.JPG (126KB - 270 downloads) '59 SF convertible 004.JPG (124KB - 282 downloads) | ||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | Next was the rearward main top bow. I never could find a replacement, so I cut out the badly rusted areas, welded in new metal. areas that weren't bad enough to replace, I brazed to regain a solid structure. There are still lots of pits, but after blasting, no live rust. Multiple coats of primer and sanding will fill most of the remaining pits. Next, the readied parts are shot with primer, the pitted ones got multiple coats. ('59 SF convertible 001.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 002.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 003.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 004.JPG) Attachments ---------------- '59 SF convertible 001.JPG (125KB - 264 downloads) '59 SF convertible 002.JPG (125KB - 272 downloads) '59 SF convertible 003.JPG (125KB - 281 downloads) '59 SF convertible 004.JPG (126KB - 275 downloads) | ||
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| 60 dart |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 8947 Location: WHEELING,WV.>>>HOME OF WWVA | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | |||
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| LD3 Greg |
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Expert Posts: 1906 Location: Ontario, Canada | |||
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| oldwood |
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Expert Posts: 2905 Location: little rock, AR | big m - 2015-03-03 8:21 PM Thanks for the tip, Chuck! Hoping to have this gal road ready to drive to Carlisle in July!! No, not another '59 in Carlisle. Houston? We are ready for lift off!!! LMAO ---John Edited by oldwood 2015-03-04 12:12 AM (007.JPG) Attachments ---------------- 007.JPG (249KB - 267 downloads) | ||
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| hemidenis |
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Expert Posts: 3887 Location: Northen Virginia | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | |||
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Expert Posts: 2905 Location: little rock, AR | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | |||
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| wizard |
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+ Posts: 13049 Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island | big m - 2015-03-05 9:56 PM Denis, I haven't really kept track of money spent, but a guess would be about $15,000 so far, not including my labor. ---John Thats a greate price John, but as you wrote; uncounted amounts of sweat, blood, swearing and just painful work Perhaps you should call her Phoinix as she raises from the crumbling rust to fid her prior glory again | ||
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| oldwood |
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Expert Posts: 2905 Location: little rock, AR | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | wizard - 2015-03-07 9:02 AM big m - 2015-03-05 9:56 PM Denis, I haven't really kept track of money spent, but a guess would be about $15,000 so far, not including my labor. ---John Thats a greate price John, but as you wrote; uncounted amounts of sweat, blood, swearing and just painful work Perhaps you should call her Phoinix as she raises from the crumbling rust to fid her prior glory again I refuse to try to keep track of hours spent, it would be rather depressing. ---John | ||
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| wizard |
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+ Posts: 13049 Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island | |||
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| oldwood |
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Expert Posts: 2905 Location: little rock, AR | |||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | The nice summery weather here lately allowed me to finish sandblasting the swivel seat parts, also the paint its frame and five wheels argent. Painted all the top components and some other items black as well. ('59 SF convertible 003.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 004.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 005.JPG) Attachments ---------------- '59 SF convertible 003.JPG (126KB - 243 downloads) '59 SF convertible 004.JPG (126KB - 229 downloads) '59 SF convertible 005.JPG (126KB - 261 downloads) | ||
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| big m |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 7807 Location: Williams California | Finally have all the top frame components assembled. Next will be the lift cylinders and pump motor. ('59 SF convertible 001.JPG) ('59 SF convertible 002.JPG) Attachments ---------------- '59 SF convertible 001.JPG (126KB - 247 downloads) '59 SF convertible 002.JPG (126KB - 257 downloads) | ||
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| deloverly |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 755 Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | |||
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| deloverly |
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Elite Veteran Posts: 755 Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | |||
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Expert Posts: 2905 Location: little rock, AR | |||
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| 60 dart |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 8947 Location: WHEELING,WV.>>>HOME OF WWVA | |||
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| 60 dart |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 8947 Location: WHEELING,WV.>>>HOME OF WWVA | |||
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